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Siberian Makhnovshchina

Siberian Anarchists in the Russian Civil War (1918-1924)

The Russian Civil War (1918–1924) in Asiatic Russia was like the American Wild West as one regime after another tried to establish its rule over the freedom-loving peasants and miners of the West Siberian plains and mountains. A key role in this struggle was played by the partisan armies put together by anarchists, which fought first against the Whites, then against the Reds. Like the better known Ukrainian peasant movement led by Nestor Makhno—known as the Makhnovshchina—the Siberian anarchists aimed to establish free federations of rural communes and worker-managed industrial enterprises. Long ignored or stigmatized as bandits by Soviet historians and their nationalist successors, the Siberian anarchist-partisans are rescued from oblivion in this pioneering study.

Igor Podshivalov (1962-2006) was born in 1962 near the Russian city of Irkutsk, a descendant of Siberian Cossacks. As a schoolboy he began to consider himself an anarchist after reading a Soviet biography of Bakunin. As a student at the Irkutsk State University he published essays about anarchism in underground publications and even started an anarchist commune in 1981. At the end of the 1980’s he became one of the leading figures in the revival of the anarchist movement in Russia, and in Siberia in particular. In post-Soviet Russia Podshivalov worked as a journalist for various newspapers and other publications while carrying on research on the history of Russian anarchism. On August 4 2006 he was struck by a hit-and-run driver near his Siberian home and died four days later.

Further reading

For more about the fascinating period of Makhno's life and influence, we highly recommend:

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